001I call this regular board of education meeting to order on Monday, October 27th, 2025 at 6 p.m. If we could all please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Thank you. If we can get a roll call, please. >> Okay. Julie Jetty >> here. >> Jason Jansik >> here. >> Darling >> here. >> Katherine Potter is absent. Mindy Hartman >> here. Bridget Sandlin. Stacy Salt. >> Thank you. Next up under community input, we have our school highlight tonight of Three Oaks, Mr. Black. Uh thank you for having us here. Uh it's great to see you all again. I am fortunate to have
002the opportunity to share about Three Oaks students and staff and one of the things that they do that makes our school so special. Uh we know just how important it is to feel a sense of belonging at your school and our before and after school clubs are one of the ways that we ensure our students know they belong at Three Oaks. Acting I heard the noise. There it is. Okay. Uh since I started at Three Oaks two plus years ago, we have had clubs as unique and interesting as the staff members who create and lead them. What you see on the screen is a list of the clubs we've had over the past couple of years. Almost all of the clubs there. It's blocked out a little bit. Uh and we have some of those
003club leaders and student members here to share about their before or after school club. So, we'll start with uh Mr. Jesse. >> Hi. Um, my name is Caitlyn Jassik. I teach second grade at Three Oaks and this is my 11th year. Um, one thing I love about running clubs is the connections I get to make across the school and with being able to see all different kinds of kids throughout the day. Um and especially to give kids something to feel good about whether they start their a their day with me or end their day. Um and when we started this club last year, we had to think about the purpose of our club of mail club and um our kids came up with their own version of our mission statement. >> No. Okay. Um so
004the mission statement that last year's students kind of came up with that kind of drove the purpose of our club is to collect letters and send them. Um, it also greatly promotes self-esteem, vocabulary building, and writing skills throughout a schoolwide mail system. And I also have some members here tonight that are excited to share more about what we do. >> Hi, I'm Vivian. And what I like about mail club is that we get to send letters and meet new people. My name's Matilda and I what I one thing I like about mail club is that you get to um um meet new people and um see like how many letters that um people are sending. Hi, my name's Kayyn and I like mail club because we can meet new friends and deliver letters. I think
005that concludes our presentation. >> All right, next up we have Miss Clapperick and Miss Corick and the Yarnies. help if I change the slides, right? >> Hi, there you go. Um, I'm Jen Corlick. I'm a special ed resource teacher at Three Oaks. Um, this is my second year of doing yarnies. Um, last year we were just a crochet club, so we tried to up our name a little bit. Um, I started crochet club because I learned it when I was a little girl and it was just um, such a good hobby that I have shown the kids. They're like, "Oh, that looks really fun. let me try that. Um, and it's been so great for our kids because they learn to really persevere because it is a very challening to learn. Um, and they tried
006something new and we met new people and we had a great time. And I have someone here that wants to share. >> What I really like about uh the crochet club is that I learned a new hobby that I really wanted to learn for a long time. And >> that's it. Thank you. Next we have Miss Matthews and the Girls Empowerment Club. >> Hi, my name is Broo Matthews. I'm an instructional coach at Three Oaks. This last round I ran um co-led uh the Girl Empowerment Club. And this club was a fun and positive space where girls grow their confidence, build friendships, and celebrate what makes us each unique and strong. Each week, we explored exciting activities that helped us become kind leaders, problem solvers, and powerful voices in our school and community. And these
007are some of our members clubs in um girls empowerment club. We made compliment cards to share kind words with each other and help build confidence. We created self-portraits and wrote I am statements of all the positive things that make us who we are. The club helped us feel proud of ourselves and support each other. We celebrated together by making a candy salad at the last meeting. My highlights from Girl Empowerment Club are learning about self-esteem so I can have confidence when taking a test or talking to others and being more assertive instead of passive or aggressive because that can help me solve conflicts that are big and small. And next we have Mrs. Krug and Miss Hopper with the Animal Lovers Club. Um, I'm Miss Hopper. I teach third grade at Three Oaks. Um, in
008case >> Go ahead, Wyatt. Oh, >> I like Animal Club because, um, we play fun activities of the animal that we're learning about. I like animal club because I like learning all the new animals. And >> I'm Danny Krue. I'm a third grade teacher here at Three Oaks. This is my second year here. Uh I am a Grace Lake Central alumni. There you go. Um and so our first day of animal club, we asked all of our students um what kind of animals they'd be interested in learning about. So we mix learning and fun together. Whoop whoop. Um, and so we have a couple animals that we learned about each week. Cheetahs, koalas, toucans, otter, and iguanas. Um, we did an animal icebreaker each time. We did some animal warm-ups. Anybody want to show an
009animal warm-up? Fly like an eagle. Nothing. Sore. Come on. >> Okay, I'll do it in a second. Um, and then we did someformational activities and of course games. So, we were very active during our animal learning. um and learned lots of interesting facts about our animals. And last up, we have Maestra Cardanos and the Gardening Club. Hello everybody. I have a little one here. Okay. My name is Miss Cartinas. I'm in charge of the club, the gardening club. So, like you see, we have a lot going on in and in the club. um every week we are doing something different and it's a lot to do like I was like choosing one or another one but the the best thing that you can see the results here is the healthy habit that we are teaching
010in the club and trying to have like a celery potatoes or something growing in our garden and the the best thing that we are sharing with Kerry grow pantry Uh that's it's not a lot but it's like two pounds of tomatoes is enough for and from our garden. So the garden is a selfwatering um system. So we don't have to be worried if we are going in a vacation or in winter time. We still have something so the kids can tell you something else about the program about the club. Can you tell >> um something um that I like about gardening club is that we're going to make bird feeders. >> Yeah. >> Something I like about um gardening club I like planting the seeds. Yes. >> Something I like something I like about garden
011club is we get to do different activities and learn different things about every different like thing that we learn about. So like you see in the picture is just a few of them. Uh micro greens is a a wonderful system that pe the kids they need to know about how to grow their own uh food and micro greens. So I have some example here. You want to try it? Okay, thank you for your attention. >> Thank you so much board members for having us and allowing uh an opportunity for the students to share. Thank you families for supporting our clubs and thank you students for being excited about these fun clubs that our teachers have to to to do and and if you don't enroll then we don't have clubs. So, it's great to have
012people enrolling, right? So, we're going to have more coming up. Uh teachers, thank you so much for your efforts. Thank you for bringing all these exciting uh opportunities for the students and have a wonderful night. Give everybody just a second. Okay, next up we have public participation. The board and administration welcome your input. When recognized by the board president, members of the public are welcome to supply information for the board's consideration or to express their opinion of district policies. However, public debate between members of the public and the board of education members or district staff will not be permitted. We ask that individuals speaking before the board identify themselves with full name and address and be brief. Comment shall be limited to 3 minutes. Miss Ritter, you're up first. >> Hello. Good evening. I was
013just wondering if you know anything about the bus barn because the neighbors are all asking me and apparently I'm the I'm the guru or whatever you want to call me of our neighborhood because most of us are senior citizens including me. But anyway, I guess I'm the youngest one. So I got stuck and everybody keeps asking me what's going on and I have no idea. Is that it? [laughter] So, we had been waiting uh we'd been working with the village to secure our our building permits for the new site uh over by Aldi. Uh and we just received the go-ahhead to start site work over at the the site by by Aldi. As far as uh for what the village has planned for the the Maplewood property, I'm not privy to that. I can just
014tell you that uh we are moving along with our transport transportation center construction project and we are excited that there will be actual work going on on that. the parcel very soon. >> Are they going to be out of there before this year? >> So, our tenative completion date is June 1st. >> Oh, next. Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Uh, next up we have Stephanie Schwall. >> Hi everybody. Nice to see everybody. Um, I've been busy this summer. I have to apologize for not coming. So, thank you all for being dedicated um to the district. Um I wanted to make a couple comments. Number one, um really good year so far um at Three Oaks. I know I come up and hurray uh the school all the time and I never think
015that we can get better teachers, but this year my kids have amazing teachers as well. And I see that there's um a really big push to read a lot. And we have a reading chart and we read at home, but we never really, you know, like quantify it. Um, and this year my kids have to uh read at least 20 minutes every single day. So, I am very pleased to see that. You know, I think literacy rates are uh, you know, aren't aren't the best locally or statewide or even in the country. So, I like seeing um, going back to kind of the basics and the old school. Let's go back to a book and less on the iPad. So, I'm very happy to see that theme going on in our school. Um, I also
016like seeing the email today. There's another um workshop for parents um to protect your kids from the internet uh and the dangers of being online. So, there's like an AI focused workshop for parents. Um I got that email today. I was happy to see that. I'm usually all over that stuff. So, I like I think it's good communication. It's easy to follow and allows us to to join um very easily. So, I appreciate that type of communication. Um my last comment is on a couple of the updates um that have been happening with the referendum money. Um so my my kids told me that there are now um uh cameras inside uh Three Oaks. So I'm not really down with that. I think that's a little excessive, but whatever. Um they also told me that
017there are uh TVs in the hallways. So I get TVs in the classrooms. I get how they can be a tool to help kids learn and you need that. But I question why there's TVs in the hallways and if that's a good use of money or um just a good use of space. They told me that the only thing that's on there is just like a very small uh image of the time and you know we already have clocks. So I just ask I guess um when the decisions are being made to allocate the funds and to deploy the money that the taxpayers have are forking out I just ask that um everybody be intentional and um really ask yourselves is this really necessary to put in the schools. Um, I do see again why
018the cameras and maybe I'm just old and from a different generation, but um the cameras in the schools I don't know. I I can I can see that, but I don't see um why there has to be TVs in the hallway. So, anyway, thank you very much for your time. Have a good night. >> Thank you. Uh next up, we have uh board uh open forum issues. First up is the foyer request. There were four foyer requests this month. Foyer requests can be found on board docs. Uh, next up are board comments. First up, Mrs. Hartman. Uh, nothing for me tonight. I hope everyone is having a good start to the school year. I think we're getting ready for cold weather, so make sure everyone is ready for those recesses outside. I know I'm already
019starting the morning fight with my kid in his jacket, but we can all do it. We can keep the kids safe and respectful and responsible at school, too. Um, but otherwise, nothing for me tonight. >> Thank you, Mr. Janzic. Uh, it was great to have the Three Oaks kids here. I got to make sure I don't have any micro greens in my teeth um while I'm talking, but it was great and delicious to have the kids here uh back in our meetings. And I just want to give a shout out to the boys cross country team here at Kerry Junior High sectional champions. They did a fantastic job and that was a great culmination for Coach Deerson who is retiring this year. um and just you know I'm really I'm thankful for him and in
020setting up a program that a lot of the students and all the community could be proud of and wish him well in the next step. So uh that is all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you Mrs. Jetty. >> Um I really enjoyed the the clubs. I think that >> sorry kids those clubs are very um important in in their development. I think it is a great um opportunity for kids to do something staying right in the school and I I think we it's a um good bang for our buck of what we um we can offer students after school. I think it's very very important. I'm glad we can do it. Um, I also wanted to say thank you to the person as I walk by the entrance to the junior high down on
021off Crystal Lake Road for putting the uh school announcements also in Spanish. I think that's a really nice touch. And um I I notice that every day when I'm on my walk and I'm not sure who does that, but um I I think it's a very nice touch and thank you very much. And um I hope everybody has a good Halloween and stays safe and um that's all. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Mrs. Sandlin, >> hi. Um, I loved the clubs. So different, too. Like animal lovers, girl empowerment. So, I want to be part of them. If I could, I would. But I so appreciated. Nice old school male club. Love that, too. So, thank you, >> Mrs. Saul. Um, I'll also say the clubs since I'm the three Oakser here are probably the best
022thing to happen to our school in the past couple years because it involves so many different kids. Um, and it was an initiative obviously by you, Mr. Black. Um, but I just know so many kids who participate and look forward to it and I signed my kids up for round two like the second I got that email today. So, [laughter] they're just something to look forward to for everybody. So, um, I'm glad they came tonight. Um, also I went to the Kerry Road meeting. what last week or so something Maplewood Road. Um and I talked to our friends over at the village and I was super excited and impressed. Um I guess they had contacted admin here to talk about escooters and have a meeting and all they wanted was one rep and you guys
023are sending three reps apparently and I love the working together still going on and they were so excited to meet with you guys and I think that's awesome. So really positive relationship. Um, and then lastly, um, my daughters asked me to talk about this. Uh, I tell my kids all the time, uh, to believe in themselves and stay positive even like when it's really hard or you're having a bad day. And I know that it's hard to be like a new teacher in a school, um, and a new person in a school. And, um, my daughter said, "I wish I could tell my teacher to believe in herself all the time because she's the best teacher I've had in a long time." Um, so I we have two new teachers who had really hard shoes
024to fill because the past two PE teachers were well well-loved. And so I will shout out Miss R and Mr. J. Um, I don't know if you'll ever see this, but tell them uh they're very loved and they're making a difference every single day in a lot of kids' lives. And it is they are new and like I said that was Miss Risabi was so loved. So, um, tell them they're making difference and they are impacting everyone's life. So, thanks to them. And I'll just reiterate what the rest of the board said. Thank you three Oaks for coming out, having your students come out here and showcase those clubs. I think any meeting we can have the kids out here makes this meeting so much better. Um, and I appreciate it. Um, Halloween is this
025Friday. I just I know it gets darker and darker earlier. So, I just ask everybody please if the speed limit's 25, go 15. Be very careful. Kids are running in and out and we don't want there to be any type of incident. So, please just be careful of that. [clears throat] All right. Next up, we have the superintendent update. Dr. Thomas, thank you. As uh Mr. Mr. Shepard said we did get to go ahead actually just today from the village to go ahead and start the site work over at the new what will be the new transportation center. Um and I do want to thank Mr. Shepard. He's been uh relentless in his work with the village and getting things moving and it's been a long process many many years in the making. So um
026and as he mentioned too, June 1st is the right now targeted completion date. So we're hoping that that uh can get going this week and we'll be uh done right on time. Uh just two other brief things. Um Halloween is this Friday. We do have a half day early release day for the parents. I mean for the students and the parents. Um and same thing I just want to reiterate um wishing that all of the the folks out in Kerry just go slow, be safe. Uh we want our kids to have a great experience. And then finally, conferences are right around the corner. They are on Monday uh uh November 24th from 10:00 to 8:00 p.m. and then on Tuesday the 25th from 8:00 to noon. Uh this past Friday and or Saturday all or
027Sunday over the weekend, all of our schools sent out information about signing up for conferences which is on a Google uh sign up form. So um for parents who haven't seen that yet, please uh look out for those and go ahead and get signed up as early as you can for conferences. Um and that's it. Thank you. Next up, we have the teaching and learning update. Miss Rivera. >> Yes. First, I wanted to start with our district technology committee that met this past week. I want to say thank you to Miss Sandlin for attending and being present. Um, thank you to Miss Lynn Williams who orchestrated the uh PD session. Um, and thank you to the the teachers who were there. Um, we do want to encourage staff if they are interested in joining the
028district technology committee. And the intent and purpose of the tech committee is to develop the district AI plan. That is the number one goal, really the only goal of that committee this year. So, it is still not too late. Teachers are interested, principles, anybody, let us know. We'd love to have you join the team. I know Miss Williams will be sending something out trying to uh encourage more staff to participate. Um in this session they did go over three different phases for this AI plan development and I just wanted to share that very briefly with you. We'll have a more detailed update in January as we had discussed before when we were talking policy. Uh but the first phase is an October December goal where they're going to re be reviewing shared language and definitions
029reviewing data and then also going over the awareness of ethical and instructional implications as it relates to AI in the classroom. Right? We want to lead with safety first. The second phase uh the goal is between January and March aligning expectations for staff and students and then developing a draft document that we will be able to share out with staff to provide um or I should say to collect feedback from staff regarding the plan. Um and then phase three, April, May, complete the AI draft plan, develop a PD roadmap and toolkit, and ensure that we've got communication and transparency going out to our families as well. So, this is not etched in stone. Um it is an ever fluid and flowing plan. This is just what we have currently and what was reviewed at our
030first initial committee meeting. Um and thank you for the shout out to the email that went out today. Please mark your calendars. So, in alignment with this topic, Thursday, November 20th is we did this I want to say the past two years we've done this at the least um protecting kids in the age of AI. It is a virtual PD um that is done um in conjunction with the attorney general's office to go over some important and pertinent information as it relates to ensuring our students safety, your children's safety in a world of AI. it it is here. And how do we navigate that? Um so please mark your calendars, sign up form. It's just like our previous two parent universities. Um click the link, sign up. We'll make sure you have the information that
031you need to attend. The last two things, bless you. The last two things I'd like to share, um one is a c well they're both a celebration. The first celebration is our D155 collaboration. We're continuing to find ways to collaborate with D155. We know that we are two separate districts, but we are one Carrie, right? And so, how do we continue to make that connection? We had a full circle moment. Um, our Latino, I should say their Latino Kerry Grove High School's Latino leadership club came out to our schools, particularly I want to say Three Oaks to visit the dual language schools, which is amazing and wonderful. And they've done this in the past, right? Um the activities that they engaged in, they centered on DIA de Muertos, Day of the Dead. Um which it
032was a full circle moment because for the first time the students in this club were students who were in our dual language program previously. So it is a pay it forward moment. I know. Let that sink in. Um it was you should have seen Miss Kramer and how just overjoyed she was. It was just this full circle where they were able to come back to a school that they had attended once upon a time ago and give back and pay it forward to students who are now in the program again. So, it was a beautiful full circle moment and a beautiful way to culminate the end of Hispanic Heritage Month. Um we did have a video one minute video that we will post on social media um that just kind of highlights the different activities
033and events that have happened across the district in celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month which was um October September 15th to October 15th. Um and then that's it. uh committee of the whole update. Uh we discussed uh we had an HYA superintendent search update presentation. Uh reviewed the bills. Uh Mr. Shepard gave his treasures report. Uh we discussed the Mckenry County mutual aid agreement which is on the consent agenda tonight and had our first look at the 2025 tax levy. Next up is the consent agenda. Included are those items that are routine in nature. Should any board member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda, the item will be discussed at the end of section 8. 7.1 are open session minutes from the September 4th, 2025 special board of education meeting. 7.2 are the open
034session minutes from the September 29th, 2025 regular board of education meeting. 7.3 are total bills and payroll for board approval in the amount of 2,816,856.19. 7.4 4 is the treasurer's report. 7.5 is the resignation, dismissal, retirement, there were none. 7.6 are employment, there was none. 7.7 is the destruction of closed meeting audio recordings. 7.8 are the disposal of assets, there were none. 7.9 are the Mckenry County Mutual aid agreement. May I have a motion to approve the following? 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 6 7.7 7 7.8 and 7.9. So moved. Okay. Any discussion? Dr. Thomas, really quickly on 7.7, are we just is your uh I'm sorry. Let me try this again in English. Is your recommendation to the board just to destroy all of the recordings that are 18 months old or older
035not doing well with words? Yes, unless they have otherwise been noted that they should not be. >> I'm not sure that we have any in that category. >> Okay. I was just looking for clarity. So, it's just a blanket. We are cleaning up the historical things that we are saving that don't need to be saved at this point. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> There's no further discussion. If we could take a vote, please. >> Jason Jansik, >> yes. >> Darling, >> yes. >> Mindy Hartman, >> yes. >> Bridget Sandlin, >> yes. >> Stacy Salt, >> yes. >> Julie Jetty, >> yes. That motion is approved. Next up, we have items requiring discussion and board approval. The approval of the amendment to reciprocal easement, maintenance, and use restriction agreement. Mr. Shepard. >> Yes. So, when we
036purchased uh the property where our new transportation center is going to go, we understood that Aldi, our our neighbor, uh had placed restrictions on that property and and use restrictions uh years ago when they when they built their store there. Um, I have to say that it's been very nice working with Aldi. Aldi, I think, is going to be a very good uh neighbor of ours. Uh, and one of Aldi's concerns was that they needed to maintain access two access points to their property. Uh, one of which was going out to the light. Uh, and the other of course is the in and out in front of their store. Um, our plan uh conforms with that request. Aldi is in in full support of our plan. It was at the request of both legal teams
037that we memorialize this in an agreement, which is why we're asking for board approval tonight. Uh again, this uh follows our original plan. It does not deviate from that. Uh and it does uh mean that that frontage road will be closed off once we are completed with our uh improvements to the site. uh any future uh work that is done to that parcel or the removal of that frontage road would be uh someone else if uh there was a potential buyer for that uh particular parcel. Uh so we would um urge the uh board to approve this agreement. >> Mr. Shepard, the one question I have I would imagine this is for their their semis to get in and out of the docking bay that's there on what would be our side of their store.
038um who is going to be responsible for the upkeep of the transportation of that that road that comes off the light and then it looks like it's kind of an ellipse that goes back then towards the store. >> So once that uh that drive is completed, we will be uh working with Aldi. We'll probably be entering into another agreement that we'll bring back to the board that will be a shared cost arrangement for the the maintenance and snow removal of that particular drive. >> Awesome. Thank you. Okay. May I have a motion to approve the amendment to reciprocal easement, maintenance, and use restriction agreement as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none. If we could take a vote, please. >> D. Darling, >> yes. >> Mindy Hartman, >> yes. >> Bridget
039Sandlin, >> yes. >> Stacy Salt, >> yes. >> Julie Jetty, >> yes. >> Jason Jansik, >> yes. >> That motion is approved. There are no other topics for discussion. May I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> So, so moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Yes. Okay. >> This meeting adjourns at 6:33 p.m. Thank you everyone. Have a nice evening.